Our work in Mosul

Muslim Aid staff are busy helping in the wrecked city of Mosul following its liberation two days ago.  Muslim Aid has been very active in responding to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq for many years and the Muslim Aid office in Erbil, 60 miles north-east of Mosul, has been helping those fleeing Mosul or living there through the conflict.  

Our staff are now working in difficult circumstances, going into high risk areas to rescue women, children and the elderly and take them to designated ‘safe areas’.  Some are so weak from lack of food and water, that they have to be carried or half-dragged to one of four sites where Muslim Aid is working, located near check-points.  Once there, Muslim Aid staff are able to supply the Mosul citizens with food and water.  They are also helping the vulnerable access medical treatment organised by the Iraqi government or other NGOs.

Meanwhile our staff are carrying out needs assessment for the longer term.  “People will want to return to their own homes but often there is only a room or two left standing.  If the home is completely destroyed, they will have no alternative but to stay in camps run by NGOs”, says Ahmed Kareem who is heading up Muslim Aid’s team.  Seventy percent of Mosul has been destroyed as a result of the war.

Muslim Aid has played an on-going part in the effort to rescue people from the conflict which has raged in Mosul intensely for almost a year.  “Last week one hundred were rescued continued Ahmed Kareem.  “They had nothing to eat or drink for four days, some of them were very sick but it is great to see them begin to recover now”.